Sin (The Waite Family) (28 page)

He pulled his mouth away
,
but didn’t stop touching her.
“You’ve never seen your nephews and niece?
Why?”
He let her go and stepped back.
“Because you’re afraid?
That doesn’t sound like you.”

She glared at him. “I am not afraid.
I just…I don’t know any of them. I left home when I was seventeen and didn’t come back much. They changed.
I’ve changed.
And for kids?
I told you I don’t know anything about them. I’ve never even held one before
I held little Connor
,
and all he did was scream for the whole bloody time
.
What the hell am I supposed to do if it
cries
again
?”

He shrugged before answering her.
“Give him whatever he wants.”
He stared for several seconds.
“So you’ll watch him, right?”

~Chapter 15~

C
oop watched Sin with Connor.
He
wasn’t sure which of them was having the most fun
,
her or him. Right now she was
“
sharing
”
a cookie with him and his belly laughs were making them all laugh.

It had been a little touchy at first.
Connor seemed to know his
a
unt was terrified of him and the little guy had wanted nothing to do with her.
When Coop had picked the crying baby up he stopped crying and
Sydney burst into tears.
Coop put Connor down on the floor again when he struggled.

The little charmer had toddled over to his toys
,
picked up his teddy bear
,
took it to Sydney
,
and handed it to her.
She hugged him and that was all there was to it.

“Give Uncle Coop some now.
Aunt Sin is all filled up.”
Sin laughed when Connor pouted.
“You look just like your daddy when you do that.”

Connor had sat down on Coop’s lap and started
gibbering
a mile a minute
,
gesturing his hands
,
and
cookie crumbs went everywhere.
Sin watched his every move.

“How do you know so much about kids
?
” she asked him.
“I mean
,
you don’t have any
,
do you?”

He laughed.
“No. But I had a partner who had three.
He’d have me over to his house a couple times a month and you tend to learn quickly what to do.”
He watched Connor drive his truck up and down his leg.
“You did great
,
Sydney. He love
s
you already.
Tomorrow night
,
you’ll be able to watch the triplets.”

“No and he…heck no.
One at a time for awhile.”
She started picking up the toys and putting them back in the bag Alyssa had dropped off. “What kind of kids do you want to have someday?”

He started to answer
,
but was
interrupted by
the door bell.
Sydney jumped up and
ran to answer it.
It was her brother and Alyssa.

Connor was happy to see his parents and was still going on and on with them as he rubbed his eyes.
He was sound asleep on his daddy’s shoulder as they left an hour later.
It was well after
midnight
when Sydney and he went to their room.
She seemed to be very nervous and confirmed it when she told him she was
going
to take a bath.

“If you want to just go to sleep, I promise I won’t wake you
.
”
She shut the door to the bathroom
quickly
before he got a chance to say anything.

He knew what she was upset about. Her question.
She knew he wanted children
.
S
he just wasn’t aware that he wanted
them
with her.
H
e
loved her, he thought he had since the moment he’d seen her snarling ass in the hospital.
Without bothering to knock, he went to the door and opened it.

“Did you want
something?
I can leave if you need to use the bathroom.”
She wouldn’t look at him.

The water was running
,
but he was sure she wasn’t aware she was pouring shampoo in the water instead of bath bubbles.
He reached over
,
took the bottle from her
,
and turned off the taps.
“I thought I’d join you.
I
t
might do my leg some good to have a nice
,
warm bath for a change.”
She nodded
,
stood up
,
and started toward the door. “No, Sydney, I want you to join me. Don’t leave me to bathe alone.”

With her back still toward him she whispered, “I’m really not in the mood tonight. Maybe tomorrow or something.
I’m really tired.”

He walked up behind her
,
reached around her
,
and unbuttoned her blouse while he spoke to her.
“I can bathe with you without sex, love.
I just wanted to relax with you. Come on, please?
I want to sit in a tub with bubbles with you.”

She nodded
,
but put her hands over his.
“Payton, we have to end this soon.
Before it’s too…I think it’s already too late.
I can’t do this anymore.
I’ve fallen…I’m in love with you.”

He turned her around.
“Oh
,
baby, I love you too.
Every prickly bit of you.” Coop pulled her into his arms and held her to him.
He felt her crying
,
but didn’t say anything. She was hurting
,
he knew that
. H
e even knew why.
So when she spoke next, he wasn’t even surprised by what she said.

“I can’t be in love with you. You need to find a normal woman to love you. A normal woman who can
give you
those babies you said you wanted
,
the ones with the blue eyes and dark hair.
We need to stop this after tonight, okay?”
She looked up at him and his heart broke for all that she thought was wrong with her.

“O
h,
Sydney, you’re the only woman I want to have babies with.
And even if our children have orange eyes and purple hair, I could care less as long as I raise them with you.
I love you
,
Sydney Valeria Waite.
Will you please marry me and have babies with me?”

“Payton, I can’t have—
”

He kissed her.
It was meant to shut her up, quiet
whatever else spilled from her lips
,
but when she growled deep in her chest, he pulled back and looked at her.

Coop laughed. “Did you just growl at me?”

“You never let me finish anything. I was going to tell you that I can’t raise anything with you.
I can’t have children.
Don’t you understand what that
means?
No babies, no one to call your own. I’m damaged goods
.
I’m worthless as a mate.”

He looked at her when she tried to get away and simply held her tighter.
When she glared at him
,
he
raised
a br
ow at her until she stopped.
He
was
sure she could have gotten away, but he was happy when she didn’t.

“If you are quite finished putting yourself down I’d like a word or two myself.
I
don’t care about your
inability
to have a child
,
Sydney.
I love you just the way you are…okay
,
I’d like for you to be less macho
,
but I love that about you too.
It’s not having the babies I care about
. A
ny moron can hav
e them.
It
’s the fact that you can be their mother that I want.
You are going to be a wonderful, loving, fun mother.
I mean
,
look at it this way
. H
ow many mothers can tell their
children that
they’ve been to the hells of the earth and survived
?
How many can say that their mommy has been
pinned by the President of the United States and from a hospital bed?
Not many
,
I bet.
I love you, Sydney, not your womb, not your ovaries, you.”

She laughed up at him.
“Wow, you are a charmer
,
aren’t you
?”
She laid her head on his chest and he held her.
She didn’t say anything for a long time.
“Are you sure about this?”

“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my entire life.
I love you and want to marry you as soon as humanly possible.
”
He grinned.
“Of course
,
there is this one thing…”

She looked up at him, pissed off again. “What now? You have ten other wives you’ve charmed with you silver tongue
,
haven’t you?
Damn it
,
Payton, stop laughing at me.”